Staying in the Game

I usually go to a yoga class on Monday nights at 5:15 that I really enjoy. Tonight, as class was starting, the teacher, Ashley, read a quote from a writer she likes that basically said we have lots and lots of chances to try again and get our lives right. It sounded a lot like something I told my fifth grade religion students today. They had made some Advent goals (mostly surrounding treating their siblings better) and I told them that even though it's no longer Advent they can still be working on their goals. And that they'll fail sometimes because we're people and we get things wrong, but that's not a reason to throw in the towel. We have to get up and just try to do a little bit better today than we did yesterday.

What I really liked, though, was at the end of the class when Ashley said that we need to show gratitude to ourselves for "staying in the game." I don't know why, but that really struck me. I've never really thought before about being grateful to myself for getting up every day, even though I've made a lot of mistakes, and keeping going and moving forward. Truly, thinking back on all my bad choices and mistakes, I probably should have benched myself long ago, but I haven't. I've stayed in the game. And that's worth being proud of myself for.

As my life coach Kid President says: